Five Kids, Two Candlesticks
by HalyPooH
Summary: Phineas and the gang decide to go scope out their trick-or-treating route, but they get caught in a surprise blizzard that the red-head hadn't seen coming. They choose to take shelter at the last minute in an old abandoned home that Buford claims is haunted. What will it take for them to get through the night? Rated T because there's blood. (not too much, though)
1. Chapter 1

The October air set chills to their bones as they walked down the dry, grey sidewalk. It was a weekend, Saturday to be exact, and the perfect time to take a walk considering the fact that there were three hours before Halloween took full swing. The five walkers were bundled up in their winter outfits, but still shivering in the bitter wind.

"I d-don't think it's e-ever been this c-cold." The raven haired girl in a hot pink coat muttered from behind her scarf.

"Twenty-two degrees exactly." Her British friend pointed out, looking at a thermometer attached to his trench coat.

"I don't know about y-you guys… but I think I'm gonna reconsider the m-mummy costume." Said a raspy voice.

"Who's idea was it to go on a w-walk in this kind of w-weather?" A higher voice murmured. "I cannot feel my appendages."

"Phineas? You wanted us all to c-come so b-badly."

The red-head darted his eyes over to the girl. "I wasn't expecting a blizzard."

"What _did_ you expect then, hot-shot?" Buford shouted in frustration. The wind tried to carry his beanie off, but he trapped it with his hand.

"The weatherman said it was g-going to be f-fifty degrees." He stated, tightening his scarf. "I thought we m-might scope out the n-neighborhood for good houses to hit tonight."

"In case you haven't n-noticed, Phineas, it's not anywhere close to fifty."

"I noticed."

"Then let's go back." Buford said, rubbing his hands on the insides of his pockets.

Suddenly, white flecks of snow began to fall down in sheets, blurring their vision. It was so sudden, in fact, that there was a burst of cold air that came down upon them, and they all closed their eyes and their teeth chattered.

"Something tells me…" Baljeet began. "We will not make it back."

"We should go in this house." Isabella said, referring to the huge three story building they stood in front of.

"Are you KIDDING?" Buford yelled. "That's the old R-Riley mansion! That place is u-uber haunted!"

"Oh…yes…" Baljeet seconded, turning towards the mansion. "I have heard m-many tales about that place. It is said, that many years ago, a family used to live here, b-but t-there was a tragic fire. All of them passed on except for the small girl, who w-waited for her family to come and rescue her, but was never saved. Although it was rebuilt in honor of the lost souls, the house has remained vacant for three decades." He paused, letting the silence take over as the gang stared at the house in wonder. "But, everyone knows it is j-just a story. Ghosts are not real, they are m-merely figments of our imaginations."

They stayed quiet for a moment longer, just long enough to realize that their feet were no longer visible, and they were standing in six inches of snow. Phineas shrugged. "You heard him. There's nothing to be scared of, Buford. Let's go in. I don't see a No Trespassing sign."

With that, Phineas trudged up the sidewalk that led to the front doorstep. Buford groaned and caught up to them after hesitating for a moment, questioning whether he had the ability to make it all the way back to his house. Isabella kept close to Phineas as they got nearer, examining the mysterious home from the outside. The snowflakes reflected in her eyes like they were two sapphire mirrors.

The pointed boy jumped onto the porch and looked at the ominous wooden door in front of him. It seemed to cast an eerie shadow… one that made the group feel uneasy.

Ferb stepped in front of his stepbrother, closer to the door than anyone else. Buford winced as the grass-haired boy set his gloved hand on the golden knob, triggering a gust of wind to blow across the porch. Two old rickety rocking chairs creaked back and forth with the air. The loose articles of clothing blew backwards, and every one of their winter hats blew off into the snow. Isabella reached for hers, but to no avail.

Phineas blinked. "What a show." He laughed uncomfortably.

Ferb turned back to the knob and turned it, and surprisingly, it opened with ease. The group didn't hesitate from getting out of the horrible weather. They piled in one by one, trying not to let too much of the nasty frigid air inside. Buford was the last to enter, and he slammed the door behind him and leaned against it, letting out a relieved sigh along with the bang.

Inside, it wasn't as freezing cold, but it definitely wasn't cold enough for it to snow. In fact, it was kind of nice and homey. The only bad thing was the fact that it was pitch-dark.

"I cannot see anything!" Baljeet yelped.

Phineas felt something warm latch onto his arm and he froze.

"Phineas? Is that you?" Isabella asked, straining her eyes in the darkness.

Relieved, the red-head relaxed his body and squeezed the frightened girl's hand. "Yeah, Izzy it's me." He too put stress on his eyes, trying to pinpoint the location of his brother. "Ferb? Where are you? Is everyone okay?"

Then, suddenly, a scraping noise filled the crisp air, stunning the teenagers. It sounded like a piece of paper being dragged across a wall.

"What was that!?" Buford's voice could be heard from his position on the floor next to the door.

The sound was heard a second time, and a third, and then with the fourth came a brilliant light and the face of Ferb. He smiled. "I've got some matches."

Isabella let out a sigh of relief.

"Haha! Good thinking, Ferbooch." Phineas complemented. "Let's try to find a candle or something."

The flame glowed in the dark room, and all five faces could be seen.

Phineas looked about the front room with eyes as wide as golf balls. Isabella let go of his arm and he stepped apart from the group. "There has to be something in here that'll give us some light." He looked up at the ceiling, where an old ceiling fan sat, spider webs latched to it from the ceiling. "It really is a shame that no one ever came and lived here."

The boards and rafters holding the roof together shook from the wind outside.

"I guess Halloween will have to be postponed…" Isabella muttered sadly, rubbing her hands together. She blew hot air on them to warm them.

Phineas hummed in disappointment. He crossed his arms as Ferb lit another match.

"Aha!" Baljeet shouted. He turned towards them from a desk that sat in the inside of a study nearby. "I found a candle!" He smelled it. "It is mandarin orange scented." The boy brought it to Ferb, who cupped his hand around the flame and lowered it to the candle's wick. The rope lit instantly, and the flame grew. Ferb blew the match out and stuck it back in his matchbox for safety.

"Cool!" Phineas exclaimed in content. "I'd say we're doing pretty well right now." He smiled and looked at the room again, which was now lit brighter. There was a staircase on either side of him that led to the second floor hallway, where three doors were set an equal distance apart.

"You said a family of four lived in here? It seems to me they could fit a whole army in here." Isabella said.

"Yes, it is said the family consisted of the mother, father, son, and daughter." Baljeet explained. "I have heard this story so many times before, I have it memorized." He shook his head from the annoyance. "Such information is not needed to me."

Ferb walked over to a window that was covered with a white lace curtain, and pulled it back so he could see out. He held the candle in front of him, and made sure not the catch them aflame. The snowflakes still fell down in blankets, swirling about, accenting the patterns of the wind. The yard in front of the house was completely white, and the road was nowhere to be found. The snow was so thick; he couldn't see the houses on the other side. It was like a white sheet had been placed in front of the window.

"I don't think we'll be leaving any time soon." He muttered.

"What do you mean? Is it really that bad?" Phineas wondered, approaching him to look.

"It's basically as if someone took a blizzard away from the poles and dropped it off here." Ferb explained.

Seeing the condition outside, Phineas bit his lip. "How are we gonna get home?"

"We're not." Ferb said.

Isabella and the others widened her eyes. The girl took off her big lug of a coat, and searched through the inside pockets for her cellphone. "Can our moms come get us? Or do you think they'll even be able to get out of the house?"

"I don't think they could get their cars out of the driveway. Besides, our mom and dad went to a Halloween party all the way across town before the snow started. They're probably snowed in too." Phineas said, a frown lining his face.

"That reminds me!" Baljeet said. "My mother went to the same party."

Buford shrugged. "Mine wouldn't care. She probably thinks I'll be out all night getting candy anyway."

"But what about my mom? She was planning on handing out candy tonight. I told her I would be back in the next hour."

"I'm sure she'll understand." Phineas comforted. "Go ahead and call her."

Isabella looked down to her flip phone and found her mom's number. The girl put the device up to her ear casually, but once it got close to her face, she pulled it away quickly and retracted. "Whoa! What the?" She looked at the screen in confusion. "There's some sort of interference. It sounds like someone's on the other end with a high frequency whistle."

"It's the house, I tell ya! It's haunted!" Buford shouted.

"This house is not haunted." Baljeet retorted again.

"It must be the weather." Isabella said as she stuck the phone back in the pocket.

"So we're stuck here all night?" Phineas questioned.

"I'm not going out in that mess again." Ferb put down. "I don't think we could make it an inch without turning into snowmen. It's coming down in thick blankets."

The red-headed fifteen year-old shrugged. "Well, we do have a whole house to ourselves. I'm sure there are beds somewhere. We could pretend like we're stranded on some island and make do with what we have." He giggled.

"That's already happened to us once, and you didn't take it that well." Buford stated. He raised an eyebrow. "You tried to dig a hole through the island for minerals, Dinner-bell. MINERALS."

Phineas rolled his eyes and sighed in aggravation. "No one will ever forget that, will they?"

"I plan on mentioning it in my speech at your wedding." Ferb exclaimed proudly. The candle flickered, making his face glow brightly, and it made the statement all the more humorous.

Isabella giggled behind her hand.

"I can picture it now!" Baljeet laughed. "Use it as an example for bad situations yet to come!"

Phineas frowned and starred at them.

"And when you two get into fights, because it'll happen, it's just what married couples do…" Ferb stated what he would say. "Just remember that island we got stranded on back when we were ten, and pretend that you're both stuck on it, and you can't get off until you've made up. Because that's what marriage is… an island you get stranded on for the rest of your life."

All four boys started to laugh uncontrollably, even Phineas, who covered his face with his hands.

Isabella chuckled and rolled her eyes at the boy's comment. "Marriage is not _that_ bad, guys!"

"It's just a rough draft, I need to go over it and edit things…" Ferb said, smiling slyly.

"I don't think I could ever get hitched. Girls are annoying and needy." Buford murmured between laughs.

Isabella frowned. "Not all of us are!"

"No, not all of you. You're not. You're just self-centered and moody."

Isabella lowered her eyebrows and glared at him. "I am not self-centered! I care about every one of you here! I come and help build things every day, and I never complain about…"She scoffed. "Breaking my nails or getting a bruise or two. I confess to getting a little moody sometimes, but I'm a girl for crying out loud! You're just jealous because I beat you at everything." She ended with a mischievous smile.

The bully pressed his lips together in disapproval.

"Please, Buford, Isabella is one of the best people I know. She cares more about us and the fireside girls than she does air." Phineas said, protecting the girl. Isabella turned pink in the cheeks.

"Gosh, I wasn't even that serious, nerds! You don't have to get all emotional."

"Insulting other people is never a joke, Bufe." Isabella crossed her arms.

"Apologize to her." Phineas insisted. He stared him down.

Buford put his hands out and held them there. "Sorry! Didn't know you would take it that hard…" He said the last part under his breath, and he looked down.

Isabella sighed in aggravation. "Alright well…" She decided to get off of the current subject. "Let's make use of our time. We should go check out the rest of the house. Maybe we'll find something cool."

"Yeah!" Phineas instantly loved the idea.

"We could split up. That way we would cover more of the house faster, and perhaps find more interesting things." The Indian boy suggested.

Buford still grumbled angrily from getting talked down by people lower than his ranking.

"But we only have one candle." Isabella pointed out.

"No, there was a second one in the study." The boy said, and stepped away from the group for a second to fetch it. He disappeared through a doorway, and soon after a small clatter was heard. They could hear the boy feel his way around with his hands on a piece of furniture. After two more seconds, he came back with another candle, this one with a stand and a handle.

"This one says it is zucchini scented… though I cannot imagine why they would make a candle with such a smell."

Phineas stuck his tongue out and grimaced. "Probably just to irritate me, I guess."

Ferb handed him the mandarin orange candle and the boy took it. He looked at it questionably and then back at Ferb. "Wait, who's gonna be in what group?"

Ferb nodded towards Isabella. "You get to be with Izzy. I'll stay with these two and make sure they don't catch the place on fire for a second time."

"Hey, you're the one with the matches." Buford commented.

Ferb raised a finger. "Ah, yes." He reached into his pocket and retrieved the matchbox. He took out what he guessed were half of the sticks and handed them to his brother. "Just in case the flame goes out."

Phineas happily took the matches and stuck them in his jean pocket, having nowhere else to stash them. "Alright. I guess it's settled then. We'll meet back right here when we're done, and I guess then we can talk about finding somewhere to sleep… that is, if the snow hasn't stopped yet."

"That sounds like a plan." Baljeet exclaimed excitedly.

"You people are talking about this as if it's some kind of playground! What if we see something we can't explain? What if somebody gets possessed? That ain't somethin' to laugh about!" The bully again raised his voice.

"Buford, if you see a ghost, then you tell me and I'll shoot it with this." Ferb held up a spaced-out ray gun that looked like it came off of The Jetsons. "It deteriorates any sign of other-worldly manifestations."

"You're lucky Ferb was gonna be a ghost hunter for Halloween." Phineas giggled.

Buford instantly became less fidgety. He relaxed his shoulders. "You two go way too far with your costumes." He eyed them.

"It makes Halloween so much cooler if you actually are the thing you want to be." The red-head explained.

Ferb stuck the gun back in the inside of his trench coat.

"Anyway…" Isabella said, trying to get rid of the others faster. "Phineas and I will take the left side of the house, and you guys can take the right.

Ferb nodded.

"Let us start with the study!" Baljeet led.

Ferb bowed off and turned away as the Hindi teenager slipped into the room again.

Buford murmured something about horror movie clichés as he followed the British one.

After they all were well into the room, Phineas turned his head to face Isabella. He put on a smile that she read as a daring one, and so in turn she smiled and flashed her eyelashes twice.

"I guess it's just you and me, huh?" The boy stated.

Isabella beamed. "Yep!"

"Come on! Let's go try to find the kitchen."

The boy held the candle up in front of him, and he glanced down a hallway worthy of inspection. Isabella stepped forward with one foot and bravely slid her hand in his. Their fingers interlocked and the warmth of his hand sent a nice feeling though her cold one. He looked back at her, his eyes brightened with a spark of adventure. He smiled at her. "Are you up for it?"

"Right behind you, silly boy." She said happily.


	2. Chapter 2

"If no one's lived here, then why are there so many things? There's clothes in the closets and drawers." Ferb closed the door to a walk in closet the size of his whole bedroom at home.

"They rebuilt it to its original state. They replaced everything, because they wanted it to become a museum, but that never happened." Baljeet mentioned as he looked at all the knickknacks on a side table next to the master bed. He picked up a dusty jewelry box and attempted to open it, but it needed a key.

Buford held the zucchini candle in front of him with shaky hands. "I still don't know about this." He muttered. 'It's real' sketchy in here."

Ferb slid his hand across the bed's railing, rubbing thirty years' worth of dust away from the golden metal. He looked at his hand with all the dirt on it and simply wiped it on his coat.

"Ferb, do you think you could get this open? It has something inside it." Baljeet lifted up the box, which was about the size of the average American football. It was heavy; indicating something precious must be hidden inside.

Ferb walked over to the opposite side of the bed where the boy stood. He took the object and looked over it, turning it several times over in his hands. His brow furrowed, and he blinked. "It needs a key, and then one turns this handle to the right." He touched a protruding metal knob shaped like an arrowhead.

"There's no telling what's inside that thing! Probably a bunch of dead roaches." Buford thought the worst.

Ferb shook his head. "Actually, no." He pointed to an engraving on the bottom. He squinted at it, and noticed a tiny screw the size of a pin head. "It's mechanical. These words are saying something about song notes. It's a music box." He concluded.

Baljeet widened his eyes in awe. "Oh!"

"Must've belonged to the mother." Buford said, coming over to the others with the light.

"Do you have a paperclip, Buford?" Ferb wondered aloud, still examining the box.

"Yeah, but don't ask why." He reached into the back pocket of his cargo pants. A second later, his hand reappeared with the tiny paperclip.

Ferb raised an eyebrow at him before taking the clip, and bending one of the ends out all the way. He shrugged off Buford's comment, and stuck the rod into the keyhole, and surprisingly, it fit. He felt around with it for a bit.

"Do you think it will work?" Baljeet questioned him. Just then, a small click sounded from the inside of the box.

Ferb retracted the paperclip and looked at the box.

Baljeet placed one hand on the lid and pulled it back, careful not to break anything. It _was_ a music box. On the inside, a tiny cylindrical wheel with little studs in it lay under a rod with strips of metal that would hit the studs and make a sound. Tiny wheels attached to the sides that would have made it turn.

Ferb smiled at the gismo. He took the knob in his fingers and turned it six times clockwise, winding it up to hear the song that hadn't been played in so long. The second he let go of it, the box began playing a beautiful melody that reminded them of good times. It was a bit sad though, coming from the particular box at this particular house. Just to think of all the good memories that the family had that were lost forever. Perhaps the music in this box was played just to calm someone down or to remind someone that everything was going to be okay.

Once the song began to slow, Baljeet felt a chill run up his spine and he took a breath. "What a melody." He said, looking up at the others wearily. He then placed the box back down on the side table.

Ferb rubbed his hands together and blew warm air on them.

"Is it just me, or did it just get really cold in here?" Buford wondered.

"It was already cold in here."

"Well… colder than before." He added.

"It's just the chill the music gave you. Let's keep looking."

Isabella stayed near Phineas as they walked around the kitchen and breakfast table. She watched the light flicker on his skin, and her hand felt sweaty intertwined with his. He hadn't let go ever since she had slipped her hand in his.

"I wish we had flash lights so we could see more." The boy said, holding the candle up to see what was in the cabinet before him.

"But the candle does give more of an eerie emphasis on things, doesn't it?" Isabella pointed out. "It makes this more of an adventure."

Phineas gave her a smile. "I suppose you're right."

Just then, they heard what sounded like an animal scampering across the floor. Both teenagers were caught by surprise, and they whipped their bodies around to find nothing.

"Rodents, I guess." Phineas shuddered. "We should've known there would be some in here."

"It sounded big."

"Raccoons?" The red-head wondered.

"It wouldn't have been so afraid." Isabella explained. "Probably a rat." She stuck out her tongue in disgust.

Then, a loud crash came from right beside Phineas and he jumped back and pulled the girl with him, both teenagers landing on the floor a few feet from where they had been standing.

"WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT?" Phineas shouted, looking in front of him.

"It was a glass!" Isabella said. "A drinking glass just… it flew towards you, Phineas!"

Phineas blinked and stood up, and he noticed the candle had been knocked out too.

"Oh, Phin, light the candle, hurry!" Isabella murmured.

Phineas bent down with one of his many matches and flicked it against the wood floor, and it lit, thanks to the old dry wood.

Isabella gasped and her face turned pale, having seen something she wished she could un-see. The girl cupped her hands over her mouth and got closer to the boy, who looked up and around him.

Every single one of the cabinet doors had been swung open to the same ninety-degree angle.

"Oh… my… gosh…" The girl let out. She found herself scared stiff.

"I… I don't know about this." Phineas muttered.

Right as the boy closed his mouth, all of the silverware and glass cups, all the china and the pots and pans, they all began to shake and rattle, making their way towards the openings of the cabinets. It was like they were vibrating. Phineas put his arms around Isabella's front side and pulled her in closer to him as they helplessly watched the events as they happened. They stood in the middle of the room, away from all the open doors. The things began to fall from the cabinets and shatter on the floor, and the pans clattered loudly. The whole china cabinet came crashing down on the floor, and the forks flew out of the drawer and stabbed the wooden drawers opposite of the one they came from.

"We need to get out of here." Phineas yelled, and he grabbed the girl's upper arm and tugged it. She whimpered and began running with him. They dodged falling objects and barely escaped a fruit bowl being flung at them by an unseen force. They stepped into a dark hallway, but the boy didn't stop there. He wanted to make sure she was completely safe. Isabella followed him into a room with a light blue door and she slammed the wooden slab behind her as hard as she could. A few last bangs could be heard from the kitchen, and then the noise stopped. The girl stood straight up from the door and stared at the boy's candlelit face in the middle of the room. She saw something in those ultramarine eyes she hadn't seen before. Something that made her want to cuddle up with a blanket on her bed like a child. Fear. Phineas' eyes were full of it.

"I… I don't know what to do, Izzy. We… we were in there and then… and then everything just came crashing down. Literally and metaphorically." He murmured.

Isabella stepped away from the door, and walked towards him slowly. Her face was blank besides the small presence of alarm. She didn't know what to do now.

She stopped right in front of him and looked into his eyes, matching the terror with her expression. Phineas looked at her, almost sorrowfully. His brain was still trying to find a logical explanation for this, but the only one he could come up with was- "Earthquake?" He sounded to her like he was begging for it to be truly an earthquake, not what his gut was telling him.

"Phineas…" She muttered. "Earthquakes don't launch things at you from cabinets. How could that fruit bowl come from the bottom drawer and end up flying past our heads?"

The boy squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head, making the fire wave around. He gave a frustrated sigh and turned away from her, walking off towards the window.

Isabella watched him leave, and as he did, she looked on sadly. What had moments ago been a frightened, unsure frown on his face was now a sad one. "What is it, Phineas?"

The boy turned facing her, and leaned against the windowsill. He watched the flame flicker. "I don't want to think about whatever was back there."

Isabella breathed in, and walked over towards him. He looked more frightened right now than he'd ever been. In fact, the only time she'd ever seen a look similar to what he was portraying was when a sad story on the news came on. She stood directly in front of him, and looked down at his sweet eyes. He had them set on his fingers as of the moment. "Whatever it was, we got through it. Now we're safe." She smiled.

He looked up at her, and returned the smile. He noticed the candlelight leaving glints on her irises, and turning her raven hair to gold. His eyes widened at her sudden… beauty.

"Do you think the others are alright?" She muttered, trying to get the strange look he had on his face to go away.

Phineas blinked to snap out of his trance. "M-Yeah. That is… if it only happened in the kitchen. Ferb's got his ray, so I'm not worrying about him, though. It's us we have to worry about." He paused to look at the unnerving blue door. "Do you think we should go try to find them now, or do you want to wait?"

Isabella, glancing once at the door and back to him, replied with a steady, "Let's wait."

"That was a loud crashing sound…" Baljeet stated as the three teenage boys wandered out of the room they had been in. Baljeet checked cautiously down each hallway he could see. This house was certainly bigger on the inside.

"Where did it come from?" Buford muttered, leaning out of the doorway.

Ferb nudged him along and made the two boys continue. He was not afraid at all, in fact, the British teen was enjoying watching them jump at every single sound they could hear. At times, he would purposely throw something small into the corner of the room just to see them jolt around and ask numerous questions. But this time, the crashing sound was not originated from him.

"It sounded like it came from downstairs." Ferb said, looking over the railing that happened to look over the living area from three stories above.

"Aren't Phineas and Isabella downstairs?" Buford said, with a small chuckle that snuck its way out afterwards. "What do you suppose they're doing down there, Bean-Pole-McGee?"

Ferb glared at him. He had never grown used to Buford calling him this, unlike Phineas had grown to actually take a liking to his complement nick-name, Dinner-bell. "If you're referring to a dirty thought, Buford, then I'm sure your assumption is incorrect." He began. "Phineas is a mindless goat when it comes to Isabella." His statement would have been a lot wittier if it wasn't for his ray to fall out of his coat pocket onto the floor with a loud, echoing CLUNK. He proceeded to pick it up as one of his friends asked the next question.

"Should we at least check it out to make sure they are alright?" Baljeet asked him through a half-grin.

Ferb pushed away from the railing and stood straight again. "Yes. Yes we should."

Phineas watched Isabella stare at the candle in wonder. They had agreed to both squeeze into the small closet of the blue room after hearing one last bump from above them. They were sitting facing each other in a closet barely big enough for one person to fit in sitting down, so their shoes touched, never mind the tip of Phineas' nose being only inches from hers. It was a bit distracting, and the girl found it hard to choose her words.

"It's a little cramped in here." The girl said, embarrassment showing on her cheeks.

"It's warmer though." Phineas whispered with a smile.

"Maybe we shouldn't have taken off our jackets." Isabella guessed.

"We wouldn't have been able to run as fast." The boy stated, and then looked up at her. "You were really fast out there. I'm proud of you, Izzy."

Isabella widened her eyes at this, since he had never said this to her before.

"The way you acted so fast… and how brave you are right now. Me, I'm scared out of my wits, but you're still hanging in there."

"But I'm scared right now too."

"You don't look it."

Isabella smiled. "That's because you… you just told me you were proud of me."

Phineas straightened out, causing a pair of hanging overalls to sway from his hair brushing it. "Well, that shouldn't be anything new." He laughed. "I'm always proud of what you do."

Isabella's eyes twinkled. "Thanks."

"No problem!" He beamed.

Isabella looked at him for a moment longer before turning her eyes down towards the fire, but despite her efforts to get rid of her smile, it didn't go anywhere, and strangely enough, Phineas actually noticed it. He actually saw, for once, that Isabella had an infatuated smile upon her lips, and he blinked.

"Isabella?" He murmured, looking at her inquisitively.

"Hmm?" She looked up again.

Phineas lowered his eyebrows in thought, but then shook it away. "N-Never mind."

Isabella was his very best friend, and she meant the world to him, but sometimes she left him clueless as to how she thought of him. She was always doing this smile-then-look-down thing, and he wished she would stop that. Why was she trying to hide her pretty smile? The closet wasn't helping the feeling go away either. It only seemed to make it stronger.

"What?" The girl broke the silence.

Phineas bit his lip and Isabella saw his eyes dart around, looking at every part of her face as if inspecting her.

But before he could answer, the voice of their Indian friend broke the feeling, and they both looked up and stared at the closed closet door. "Phineas? Isabella? Are you alright?"

Phineas quickly stood up and opened the door. "Yeah we're fine!" He ran for the door of the room and opened it.

Isabella stood up and sighed. Yet again, the moment was perfect and something got in the way.

"What is it, Baljeet?" Phineas wondered as he walked cautiously into the kitchen. The floor looked like a battlefield from the Revolutionary War.

Baljeet and the other three boys widened their eyes at the disaster.

"What happened here? Phineas, I knew you were a little clumsy, but I didn't think you were this bad." Buford commented, making the red-head raise an eyebrow at him.

Isabella's head popped up from behind him, and she peeked at the others. "It wasn't him. The dishes and glasses came flying out of the drawers by themselves."

The two groups found themselves separated by a thick sheet of broken glass. The floor was covered in the stuff, and there was no way one could step over any of it. It covered the whole expanse of kitchen. Ferb blinked at his brother.

"Is there another way around the kitchen?" Baljeet thought.

"We have shoes on, Jeet." Phineas pointed out as he raised a foot up to step on the glass. He set it down carefully, and the glass crunched beneath his weight. But suddenly, he yelled in pain and retracted his foot.

"Phineas!" Isabella shouted.

The boy jumped away from the glass shards and stood on his good foot to examine his other one.

"Are you okay?" Buford exclaimed, and Ferb pushed the other boys back away from the glass.

"Did it go through your shoe?" Ferb asked doubtfully.

"No, it.." Phineas looked confused. "It cut my leg. There's a gash close to my knee."

Isabella looked at his hurt leg. "Now how is that possible?"

"Did the glass grow legs and jump up to ya?" Buford said with a small chuckle.

Phineas sat down and looked at his cut, from which blood was starting to trickle down his leg. He winced as his knee bent.

On instinct, Isabella quickly took the pink bow from her head and unraveled it, revealing a long pink ribbon. "Here." She proceeded to wrap the make-shift bandage around Phineas' hurt leg. The boy widened his eyes and ignored the pain.

"But that's your bow!" The red-head exclaimed, and then he held back a shout from the pain. The pink ribbon covered the cut perfectly, and it wrapped around his leg twice. She finished it off with a knot.

Phineas looked up at her sadly, and she smiled and passed a hand through her bow-less hair. "It's okay, Phin. I'm pretty sure you'd cut down your tree for me if it came to it. Plus, I kind of needed a new one."

Phineas' frown turned into a small smile. "Thanks, Izzy."

"Okay, so…" Baljeet yet again interrupted. "Clearly, we have no way to get to you."

"Did you see if there's another way?" Ferb asked.

Isabella then looked down both hallways on either side of her, one leading to the blue room, the other leading to what looked like the laundry room. The door was slightly ajar, and she could see an empty white basket.

"There's just two rooms that lead to nowhere." The girl said, looking at the green-haired teenager in disappointment.

Ferb sighed. Now how was he supposed to get those two out of there? There was no way they could crawl across the countertops, knowing there would be tiny glass shards on them, and running across would be like trying to fill a cup with no bottom. But before he could let himself assume anything, he needed to perform a small experiment.

Ferb pulled out a spare match from the matchbox in his pocket. If the glass had done what they thought, which was leap up somehow and manage to gash Phineas' knee, and all Phineas had done was set his shoe upon it, then the glass responded to pressure. Ferb thought that maybe it would do the same to the match. The other four teens watched him toss the unlighted wooden stick out to the middle of the kitchen.

Like always, he was right.

The gang gasped as the select pieces of glass the match had fallen upon actually _pounced_ on it, and soon, the stick was sliced into tiny little fragments of what it used to be.

They all widened their eyes in shock.

"Is the glass alive!?" Phineas wondered aloud, sitting up and trying to stretch out his leg, but failing.

"I wouldn't say that." Ferb said, eying the pile of sliced matchstick.

"Then what in the world is it?" Buford asked. "If the glass isn't alive, then it must be being controlled by something." He paused and wiggled his fingers about in a spooky manner. "Or someone."

All five of them were silent for a second after he ceased speaking, just simply staring at the strange glass. Then Ferb shook his head and looked down, his hair waving about.

"It doesn't matter at the moment. All we need to worry about is how we're going to get those two across the kitchen without being sliced into a million pieces." He pointed at Phineas and Isabella while looking behind him at Buford.

"Way to raise our hopes, Ferb." Phineas giggled.

The boy in the trench coat pressed his lips together and lowered his arms.

Baljeet laughed. "Well, we should try to find something we can get them across with." He pointed his thumb behind him into the hallway.

"We'll be right here when you come back." Isabella said, waving them off.


	3. Chapter 3

After the three boys left to try to find something they could use to build an object that would help the two stranded teenagers across the room, Isabella looked down at her pink bow that was now wrapped around the red-head's knee.

The gash was pretty big… big enough to cause quite a lot of bleeding. The blood had long made it through the fabric, and it didn't look too pretty anymore.

Isabella looked up at Phineas as he touched the bow with his fingers.

"Does it hurt?" She asked.

He gave a half smile and looked up at her. "Only when I move my leg."

Isabella saw the red flush his cheeks as he focused on the pink ribbon. She knew he was forcing himself not to make eye contact with her, but why?

She looked up at the lintel and down to the glass-covered floor, making a determined face. "We need to get away from the kitchen as much as possible." Then she turned to the boy. "Do you think you can stand up?"

Phineas blinked. "Yeah, I don't think I have any broken bones." He joked. Then he pushed himself up with his hands and used the muscles in his chest to lean forward, but the gash in his knee was being severed even more as his skin flexed. He let out a cry of pain and fell back on his bottom again, back at square one. He groaned. "Ugh! It hurts too much!"

"Well, I need to get you away from that man-eating pile of fancy transparent rock."

Phineas giggled a bit at her description. Isabella tucked a piece of hair behind her ear and hid another smile as she stuck her arms underneath him, causing him to widen his eyes in shock.

"Whoa! What are you doing!?"

"If I have to carry you, then so be it."

With a great amount of muscle and nerve, she lifted the triangular-headed boy off the ground and stumbled a bit before gaining her footing.

"You know, usually it's the guy who carries the girl off at the end…" Phineas murmured, giving her a sly grin.

"It's not the end, so why not change it up a bit?"

"That might cause a paradox in the whole story."

"A pair of socks?"

"A paradox."

"It really does sound like pair of socks." The girl figured.

"I feel like I'm your pet and you're carrying me around." Phineas admitted, narrowing his eyes.

The two teenagers got to the blue room and Isabella let him down on the bed. It creaked under his weight.

"I can rub your tummy if you want me too." Isabella joked, setting her hands on her waist.

Phineas giggled. "I'm sure a small dog version of me would appreciate that very much."

For some reason… this disappointed Isabella.

Ferb and the two other boys walked up the steps of the mansion, listening to the sound of the creaking steps. They were looking for something… anything… that would help their friends out of the situation.

"How are we going to get them without touching the kitchen floor?" Baljeet wondered, following his two friends as the caboose.

"See, there's this thing called gravity, and I don't think you're gonna find anything to defy it in here." Buford exclaimed lowering his eyebrows in doubt.

"All I need is some green face paint, a broom, a witch's costume, and some fancy stage lights." The green-haired man joked. "It's really not that hard."

"TELL THEM HOW I AM DEFYING GRAVITY, I'M FLYING HIGH DEFYING GRAVITY!"

"Not so loud, Jeet!" Buford shouted.

"I am sorry… it is such a touching song." He moved his hand up the railing.

Ferb giggled.

"But in all seriousness, man, what are you plannin'?" Buford asked as they reached the second floor. The three doors that lined the hallway were the only ones they had to choose from, and Ferb took it to himself to open the nearest one. He peered inside what looked like a nursery. There was a baby's crib, and a mobile with starfish on it.

"I added an additional function to the ghost ray when Phineas was in the bathroom this morning. He has no idea about it."

"And that function is?" The bully pressed.

"Pranking. It can make objects you point at float."

Baljeet smiled. "So all we have to do is make a chair float over to them."

"So why did we come all the way upstairs when there's perfectly good chairs in the dining room downstairs?" Buford mumbled, walking towards the door in the middle of the hallway.

"So we can have more time to explore the house. And, so the two of them can have time alone."

The bully pointed at Ferb and let out a chuckle. "I like the way you roll." He paused. "Even though sometimes I can't keep up with your witchcraft."

"Technically, it'd be warlock-craft." Ferb held a pointer finger up as he spoke.

"See? Do you see what I mean?" Buford held out his hands as Baljeet passed by him, walking into the middle room. Ferb smiled and shrugged while placing his hands in his coat pockets.

Once the three boys got into the room they looked around and saw the pink wallpaper, the bed with a matching pink quilt, a place for playtime, and a pink dresser covered in cobwebs.

Buford widened his eyes as he realized where they were. He let his shoulders drop down as it sunk in. "This is the little girly's room."

A loud SLAM came from behind them, and was followed by a clicking noise, and all three of them spun around like spinning tops, to come face to face with the door.

"It feels like I was mashed knee-first into a steak knife and then fell into a pit of legos, and then was immediately doused in a bath of rubbing alcohol."

Isabella grimaced. "Oh, _not_ legos…"

Phineas nodded, poking his knee.

They were still sitting on the bed, sitting facing each other like they had been in the closet not too long ago. Phineas had his back propped up on the headboard, and Isabella sat on the edge of the bed, close to his knee.

"Yeah, it's that bad. I remember what it feels like too, because Ferb and I got a huge set of them for Christmas when we were eight, and we had dragged them up to our room and used them for about a week, and then I got tired of them, so they were left sprawled out in the middle of the floor between our beds. One night, I got up and went to the bathroom, and when I came back, I tripped on something and landed in them face first."

Isabella widened her eyes. "If it was anything other than legos you landed in, that would have been funny."

Phineas looked awestruck. "I know!" He paused. "I had to scream silently because I didn't want to wake Ferb up."

Isabella let out a laugh at that one. "What did Perry do?"

"He was the one who fished me out of the pile."

The girl laughed even more, thinking the boy was joking. But Phineas didn't mind. He loved hearing her laugh.

Eventually, she calmed down, and the two were left with a sad silence.

"It's too bad I can't move without it hurting." Phineas said, after getting a little uncomfortable with the quiet room.

Isabella shrugged and looked down. "We still would only have two rooms to see."

"Better than sitting in a bed all day." The red-head pointed out. He sat up and repositioned himself.

Isabella let out a small chuckle, and seeing the kindness in his eyes she so often got lost in, she quickly turned her head down, yet again hiding the smile upon her lips. She had been doing this more often than she usually did, and unbeknownst to her, it was really worrying Phineas. He had seen this one too, and again, the joy was ripped out of him when he saw her unhappy.

"Hey…" He began, getting her attention again. The girl looked up, but the smile was gone. Phineas frowned slightly and lowered his eyebrows. "About our conversation in the closet earlier…"

Isabella's face was immediately flushed. "Yeah, what about it?" A bit of her hair came loose from behind her ear and fell over her eye. Without her bow, there was nothing holding it back. She took it away from her face, but didn't tuck it back in its place, keeping her hand close to her cheek.

"I-I was about to ask you something, but we were interrupted by Jeet."

"Oh, um… yeah. I remember." Isabella said, and then bit her lip.

Instead of going on, the red-head kept his mouth open slightly and his eyes narrowed, thinking about what to say before he said it. When he finally got it sorted out, he had Isabella at a stunned position.

"It's nothing to worry about, it's just…" He began, giving her a little relief. "Why do you do that?"

Isabella blinked. She didn't know if she quite understood the question. Was it the still air in the room that was making her uneasy, or was it the question suddenly thrown at her?

"Do what?"

"That thing where you smile and then look down to hide it." Phineas tilted his head.

Isabella, suddenly shocked that he'd noticed what she'd been doing, looked at him with a dumbfounded expression. She bit her lip before she spoke: "I… What are you talking about?" Her question was uneasy.

"You do it all the time, and I'm beginning to think you don't want others to know you have feelings." He looked her up and down, and added sadly, "I _wanna_ see your smile, Izzy."

Isabella stared at him blankly and then swallowed, feeling she might shed a tear or two at what he had just said. She played with his shoelaces, twirling one around her finger.

"Are you not going to say anything?" Phineas asked. "Because, I'm really worried you might be trying to cover up how you feel, and I think that maybe…" He paused and took a breath. "That maybe those feelings are about me. Correct me if I'm wrong."

How did he figure it out? How did he even notice that she was trying not to let him see? He didn't care about her feelings towards him, that's why he never bothered to think about relationships. Or at least… that's what she'd been thinking for the past three months or so- That he didn't care, so he wasn't going to bother.

"You mean you… you actually care?" Isabella muttered just loud enough for him to hear.

At these words, something inside him broke. Phineas leaned forward. "What do you mean!? I've always cared about you, Isabella. What makes you think any different?"

"The fact that you never once thought about why I even come to your yard every day in the first place!" Isabella raised her voice slightly, and Phineas widened his eyes. "It was never for the invention, Phineas, it never was, and it still never is."

Phineas blinked and his face was getting pink. "I… I"

Isabella didn't let him go on. "I can't believe it's still not wrapped around that head of yours! Sometimes I think you're doing it for a reason." She sniffed. "That you're not letting it sink in because you don't give a crap about it. And at the end of summer this year, I… I just couldn't take it anymore. I gave up on you, Phin. Because you're never going to get it. And it isn't something that you can study for either. It's either you understand, or you don't, and you don't."

Phineas again tried to stop her. "What don't I get!?"

Isabella wiped her eyes of tears, and stood up off the bed, faced him, and clenched her teeth. "I have always liked you as more than a friend. More than as best friends." She said as calmly as she could. This caused the boy to be suddenly paralyzed, and he looked up at her with complete and total surprise.

Seeing his reaction, she added, "And if you care, then you won't stop me from what I'm about to do."

Isabella made her way to the bedroom door, and Phineas sat up in surprise.

"WE'RE STUCK IN HERE!" Buford yelled. "AND THERE'S A LITTLE GHOST GIRL AND SHE'S TOTALLY GONNA DO SOMETHIN' FREAKY, MAN."

He shook Baljeet by his shoulders, and the small boy's head flailed around. He struggled out of Buford's grasp and groaned.

"There is not a ghost in here! It was most likely a draft that pushed the door closed."

"And was it the draft that LOCKED THE DOOR TOO?" The bully pressed.

Baljeet shrugged. "You never know."

Buford laughed in aggravation, and tried to unlock the door again, but it wouldn't budge at all. Even Ferb had tried, and he couldn't do anything to it either.

"Do you have any interesting features on your ghost gun that'll knock the door down?" The bully wondered, looking at Ferb.

Ferb lowered his eyebrows. "Buford, this is a little much for you, even if you cried over a goldfish. Usually you're more tough than this." He sat down against the door like he wasn't concerned at all about it.

"Are you sayin' I'm not tough?"

"I'm saying that you're acting odd."

"You're one to talk, mister I'm-gonna-go-to-the-moon-for-ice-cream!"

"You went too."

"I was just tagging along."

"But seriously, Buford, what makes this situation any different? I'm just wondering. You seem out of it. More than usual." Ferb pressed, looking up at him from where he sat. He rubbed his finger and thumb together. This had become a habit of his when he was trying to piece something together. He had first noticed he did this while reading the Sherlock Holmes novels.

"It's ghosts! I don't like ghosts. Who does!?" The bully spread his arms apart. "And you're freaking me out too with your sudden endless yappin'."

Ferb blinked and nodded in agreement.

"And if it was a ghost, it would have had a reason for locking us in this room. So why is it being so quiet?" Baljeet thought, looking around the room with his hand upon his chin.

Usually in scary movies when doors closed unexpectedly, something else happened right after that made the characters jump or scream. But nothing was happening. In fact, the room felt like any other room. They didn't feel like they were being watched, and the shadows weren't frightening them in the least.

"Good question…" Ferb said, crossing his arms over his chest in thought.

"Maybe it's just trying to trip us out." Buford exclaimed.

Ferb glared at the dark obscurities in the corners of the room, as if waiting for them to start moving or something weird like turn into figures. "Or maybe it's waiting for the right moment to act." He suggested.


	4. Chapter 4

Isabella pushed the wooden door open. It creaked and she took a deep breath, secretly thinking twice about what she was about to do. But she made herself let go, and she took her first step into the hallway.

Phineas, still completely dumbfounded by what the beautiful girl had just said to him, bounded out of the bed. He winced harshly when his leg flexed and the skin underneath the pink bow moved. He looked up and saw the last bit of Isabella's hair as it went out of view.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" He yelled, trying to get her to stop.

But the girl kept going, and she didn't say anything back.

Phineas held his breath and closed his eyes for a split second, and then he ran out of the room after her. His knee caused him a great deal of pain with every step, but that didn't matter anymore.

"STOP IZZY!"

He saw her standing in the doorway of the kitchen. His eyes went wide with horror. "ARE YOU INSANE?" He yelled.

Phineas ran then, and he limped slightly. But he was too late.

Isabella stepped into the kitchen right foot first, holding onto the sides on the doorway. Just as the boy got to her, she let out a deathly scream. He reached out his arms and grabbed her around her stomach, and he pulled back as hard as he possibly could. The girl came back with him, but she was still screaming, and he had to keep his grip tight because she was trying to get away. Tears were streaming down her face and she yelled, but Phineas tightened his grip on her dress. She squirmed in his grip, and Phineas backed away from the kitchen with her in his grasp. "STOP IT! ISABELLA STOP!" He found himself slowly pulling her and himself closer towards the laundry room. She tried to push his arms off, but he wouldn't budge for anything. Isabella let out loud sobs, and she stiffened her legs, making it extremely difficult for Phineas to keep moving her away from the danger. "LEMME GO!" The girl shouted. But for the first time, Phineas did not do what she asked.

They both came tumbling down in the floor of the laundry room, Phineas on top. Phineas quickly jumped off of her and slammed the door shut with his back, holding Isabella down until he could get to a good blocking position. He sat in front of the door and stared at her.

Isabella blinked slowly, and a tear fell from her eye and splashed down on her leg, causing the blood from one of her many cuts to fall down her leg with the weight of the extra liquid. Luckily, she had not been in the kitchen long enough for the cuts to dig in as much as Phineas' had. They were only small scratches like one could get from a cat. They covered her bare legs and arms, and only a few laid across her face on her cheeks and forehead.

"What the heck made you think that you should go and kill yourself? Since when do you make stupid, un-thought out decisions?" Phineas said sternly, clenching his fists.

Isabella's hair had tiny pieces of glass stuck in it, and it was a complete mess, falling over her whole face as she looked down. She was hunched over with her hands covering her mouth, and although the boy couldn't see them, her eyes stared off at her bare skin. She rocked slowly on her legs.

Phineas' breathing became unsteady and he could feel his eyes begin to water, but he sucked it up and tried not to sound like he was about to cry. He was scared. He was scared that Isabella was actually crazy enough to do something like that. It scared him that she would _hurt_ herself for him… that she would die for him.

"That was scarier than the ghost cups." He murmured.

He saw another tear fall from her eyes.

"I'm sorry." Isabella finally squeaked.

Phineas let out a shaky breath and he ran a stressed hand through his hair. Isabella turned her face up to where he could see her eyes, but only through the strands of hair. She still had a hand cupped over her mouth and her eyes were about as wide as they could be.

"I'll only forgive you if you promise not to ever do that again." Phineas put down strictly, pressing his hands against the floor.

"I'll only promise not to ever do that again if you say that you care. That you really truly care, and you have to prove to me that you mean it." She said through sobs.

Phineas looked at her worriedly, and he felt the tension rising in the small room like water in a tub. He leaned forward, which surprised her, and he got on all fours. Isabella slowly took her hand away from her mouth. Phineas had decided he needed to be closer to her.

He placed one hand in front of the other, and then soon followed his good knee. The wood floor creaked with every hand he placed down, and Phineas held in a shout every time his bad knee touched the ground. It was a struggle, but he made his way over to her and sat down right in front of her, leaving no space for either of them to scoot forward. In a basket that sat next to them, a white cloth was sitting all alone, and the boy decided it would come in handy.

Isabella sat in her place and didn't move. Though she was distraught, she still took pleasure in watching him- something she cursed herself for doing anymore.

Phineas reached into the basket and pulled out the cloth, looked at it, and pushed himself up off the ground. He wet the cloth with warm water in a sink next to an old washing machine from the 1980's. He didn't question why the water in the house was on. Though he was sure the electricity was off because he had checked the light switches in the blue room.

After the cloth was mildly dampened, he sat back down and glanced quickly at her now curious eyes. The water on the cloth dripped down his hand. He rung some of the excess out on the floor, and then balled up the cloth and firmly grasped it in his fingers. Without words, he took the black hairs that caressed her face and tucked them behind her ears. Isabella felt the warm cloth press against her cheek, and she couldn't stop herself from melting into his touch. He was wiping the dots of blood away from her skin. She blinked and stared at his determined expression.

The boy rubbed her cheeks and forehead until nothing but the scratches remained, and no blood was visible. He dipped the now pinkish cloth into the puddle of water on the floor and took her hand, outstretching her arm. Phineas gasped when he saw how many scratches she had, and Isabella saw his eyes darken. "This is my fault…" He muttered.

"It was my stupid idea." She said.

Phineas started at her upper arm and dragged it down until he reached her hand. She had had the palms of her hands on the doorway, so luckily she didn't have any scratches there. When he finished her arm, he went to the other one, which wasn't quite as bad.

"Did your sense of mind go on vacation for those few seconds or what?" Phineas asked, slowly running the cloth along the underside of her lower arm.

"I…I don't know, Phin… Maybe it was just the house getting to me. I just felt a lot of pressure being put on me, and… I guess I… I just lost my mind."

Phineas smiled at her. "At least now I know not to ever make you mad."

He finished her other arm. It now looked good as new, except with a lot of red marks. Next up was her legs. He dipped the cloth in the puddle again and looked up at her face, and to his surprise, she was smiling. She was willingly smiling at him. Once she saw the boy's face light up, she let out a slight giggle.

"You're smiling at me." He stated.

"Yes, yes I am." Isabella continued to smile, and she didn't try to hide it. What Phineas was doing was _literally_ caring for her. He was rubbing away her scratches, which in her mind represented the emotional scars that resided in her for the longest time.

Phineas opened and closed his mouth twice, trying to find words to say. The girl giggled again.

"I-It's a beautiful smile…" He said, the damp cloth dripping down his arm.

"It's not like you haven't seen it before." The girl seemed dazed, lost in his eyes yet again.

Phineas shrugged. "I haven't seen it in forever."

"Forever's a long time."

"He-yeah." The boy breathed.

Isabella blinked at him, and pondered about what he was thinking at the moment. Whether he was just taking in the beauty of her smile, or thinking about his actual feelings towards her. Then she remembered- she had just told him her real feelings for him. He seemed to be taking it considerably well… or could he have forgotten?

Then the boy caught himself, and jerked up, sitting straight. "Uh-h-huh, y-your legs… they still have blood on them." Phineas dipped the cloth into the water again, having lost most of it down his arm.

Isabella lost her smile, knowing that Phineas had just caught himself from doing something that she wished he would do.

Scared by the sound of Isabella's screaming from downstairs, the three teenagers upstairs had immediately tried many different ways of braking out. First, they had tried smashing the door out by slamming their bodies against it, and after that didn't work, they broke off one of the bed posts and tried using that as a battering ram. But, all of their attempts, leading up to Ferb trying to use Buford's hair pin as a screw driver, failed.

"The door has not even budged! It is like it has a force field around it!" Baljeet stated, flinging his arms up in the air in defeat.

"Looks like we're never gonna know what happened to girly." Buford shrugged, sitting down in a tiny chair made for a five year-old. Ferb gave him a look.

The green-haired man tapped his fingers on his leg. _The door hadn't budged since it closed. Nothing in the room was looking suspicious. Nothing except for the fact that Buford was now brushing the hair of a doll with a plastic fork… although, he never did make rational sense. The glass had apparently jumped off the shelves when Phineas and Isabella entered the kitchen, and once they had reached the separate hallway, it had turned into evil ravenous jumping glass. There has to be something that connects everything together. Something I'm missing._ He thought. _If Buford was right, and the house is haunted, then perhaps the ghost is wanting something from us._ At least, that seemed like the most logical explanation at the moment.

"Baljeet?" Ferb asked, looking up at the Hindi teen. Baljeet turned towards him and looked on, ready for his question. "How did the house catch on fire?"

Baljeet blinked and then leaned back on the bed. "Well, it is kind of sad, but okay." He took a deep breath and began the story. "The mother and father got into a heated argument while in the kitchen one day, and the woman was cooking something on the stove. She had turned around to quickly say something to him, and she knocked the pan and its contents onto the floor, hitting her toes, and she accidentally pushed the paper towel roll into the fire. It instantly went aflame, and she could only think about her now broken toe. The husband left her there and drove away, and she could not put out the fire on her own. It quickly set the whole kitchen on fire, and the woman was engulfed. The son, oldest of the two children, had heard the commotion, and went to see, but he was too late, for the fire had swept through the whole ground floor. He could not get out of his room, and died slowly as the smoke mixed with the air in his room." He sighed. "The little girl… whose room we are in right now… had stayed in her room because she was scared. She heard the screams of her family, and did not dare to open the door. When the smoke began to enter her room, she, at only the age of nine, took a scarf from her closet and hung herself on that wardrobe." He nodded to a large wardrobe, which sat silently on the other side of the room. It was tall enough and had four decorative posts on each end, from which a small girl could easily do so. Ferb brought his hand up to his mouth and covered it as it all sunk in. "Later on," Baljeet continued, "The news board found the husband in his car… which was upside-down in a ditch five blocks away."

"_Kind of_ sad?" Buford immediately exclaimed. "That was an extreme under exaggeration on your part, nerd!"

Baljeet chuckled nervously. "At least I warned you, if only slightly."

"You couldn't have made it a tad happier, dude? I mean really, this is a kids' fanfiction." The bully shook his head and frowned as he spoke.

"It is not my fault the story of the old Riley place is so sad." Baljeet said, standing straight and getting off the bed. Ferb put his hand out and shook it in the air, while his other was placed across his face in thought. "Wait, wait, no. That actually makes a lot of sense." He looked at the other two boys, who raised an eyebrow at him.

"It makes a lot of sense that a nine year-old hung herself? Dude, what is wrong with you!?" Buford shouted.

"No, not that!" Ferb said back. "I mean the whole story makes all of the events today make sense." He stood up and placed a finger in the palm of his left hand, counting off the things as he named them: "Jeet said the girl didn't dare open the door because she didn't want to hear the screams of her family. A few minutes after this door closed, we heard Isabella screaming downstairs. He said the fire started in the kitchen. The activity started occurring to us _in the kitchen_. He said the pan fell down and hit her toe. The things in the kitchen cabinets just fell from everywhere and tried to hit Phineas and Isabella!"

Buford and Baljeet started to widen their eyes as it all began to piece together.

"And lastly, he said the couple had gotten into an argument, and that's what started the whole chain of events causing everyone to perish." Ferb sported a determined smile. "That means, all these ghosts want… or need… is love."

Buford narrowed his eyes. "Are you kiddin' me?"

"He just might be on to something, Buford." Baljeet said happily, crossing his arms over his chest.

"I wasn't asking you!"

Ferb smirked. "Well then no Buford, I am not kidding with you. What I'm saying is… all we need in order to get out of here is for Phineas and Isabella to fall for each other down there." He pointed to the ground.

The bully groaned loudly, sat back down in the chair, and rested his chin on his hands. "That's it, we're never getting out of here."

The girl's legs were now clean of any bloody scratches. The boy had taken tender care as to get every single bit of blood off, and it took a while, but Isabella didn't mind in the least. Phineas' hands had actually begun to shake a tiny bit after he was halfway through with the first leg, but she could tell that he too was enjoying it very much. Isabella had closed her eyes as he rubbed her shins with the cloth, and he had blushed madly behind her closed eyelids.

"Why Phineas," She taunted. "I find your whole face is as red as a ripe cranberry."

This had only made the cranberry red turn into more of a maroon. She wasn't even sure if that was healthy.

"Do you blame me?" Phineas had said, getting up to re-wet the cloth in the sink. "For a guy not to blush even the slightest while doing this would be considered a pervert."

She had laughed and tilted back her head.

Now in the present time, Phineas was ringing out the pinkish cloth in the sink, twisting it with most of his strength. He just decided to leave it there to dry out the rest on its own.

Isabella watched him lightly slap his hands down at his sides and press his lips together. He smiled at her, and then sat down where he had been sitting while washing her off. Isabella continued to give him a sweet smile. "Thank you, Phinny."

Phineas chuckled slightly and showed a grin. "My pleasure."

He then sighed and laid back a little, putting his weight on his elbows. "Luckily this isn't one of those really small laundry rooms where you can hardly move around."

Isabella nodded in agreement. "Would have made it a lot harder on you." She moved the basket that separated them, putting it on top of the washer.

"You sure are strong." He commented.

She lowered her eyebrows. "It's an empty basket…"

"No, I was talking about earlier. Trying to get you in here was hard." He watched her come and sit next to him, coming so close that their arms and waists touched. They both scooted back to the wall so they could lean against it.

"I don't mean to brag, but I _did_ use to be in the Fireside girls." She smirked.

Phineas giggled. "Leader of the Fireside girls." He corrected.

Isabella slowly leaned her head on his chest, trying not to startle him. "Well, if you're looking for specifics, then yes, yes I was."

As her head met his chest, Phineas took a deep breath and blinked a couple times. He looked down at the girl, the beautiful girl that cared so much for him. He knew he cared about her too… but was it in the way she wanted for him to? Did he… love her? It was the most complicated question ever, even though when he had heard it before, it didn't seem that difficult to answer, and he wasn't scared at all to answer it, but now, when the question was looking him in the face and the girl in question was lying against him, he couldn't get the gears in his brain to work right.

Isabella could feel his heart pumping against the back of her head, and she shifted up a little and tilted her head back to look at him. Phineas was staring straight back at her with a curious, yet stumped facial expression, and she noticed his orange hair was a mess. The boy had a slight frown, but it wasn't a sad one, it told her that he was deep in thought. But what about?

Phineas gazed at her, and she turned around so she could face him properly. He furrowed his brow. "Can I try something?" He wondered, making the most serious face she had ever seen him with.

"It depends…" She muttered, staring at him with wide eyes.

Phineas reached his hand up and tucked the hair behind her ear, revealing her forehead. This gesture made her tense up, and she felt like she couldn't breathe. She tilted her head into his hand, and the boy flashed a smile. "What is it with you and your endless riddles?" He said, leaning closer.

"They're not exactly riddles, Phin. You just think too much." She half-lidded her eyes and placed a hand on the floor in front of her in order to lean closer.

"But I don't want to be clueless anymore… I wanna know." He whispered, looking straight into her. He rubbed the side of her face with his thumb, feeling where her hair started above her ear. He subconsciously pulled in his legs, and felt the gash in his knee re-open, but he had his thoughts on something else at the moment. His knees came up to his chest, and Isabella crawled in and sat on her own knees, causing the gap between them to become incredibly thin.

"Want to know what?" Isabella whispered lightly, just loud enough for him to hear. She put her hands on his shoulders, and he leaned in, as scared as a mouse in a snake pit. His nose skimmed the side of her face as he came in, and he tilted his head a little. Isabella took a shaky breath and her eyes fluttered shut. And then… his lips touched hers.

Phineas felt something inside him light up. He was kissing Isabella. And she was kissing him back. He felt her hand move up the back of his neck, and he couldn't help himself. It was all clicking into place. He needed more.

His hand pulled her closer to him, and he pressed his lips harder against hers.


	5. Chapter 5

A kiss, that's all it took. The cabinets above the washer and drier began to open and close, and the curtains all around the house started to fly upwards, looking like something was holding them up in the air. The bed sheets in every room, including the little girl's, started to ruffle, and the chairs everywhere scooted around on their own. The glass on the floor in the kitchen began to fly back up into the cabinets, and repaired itself to its original state, right up to the tiniest scratch, reforming the beautiful cups and dishes they once were. All of the electronics in every room began to come on, and the lights flickered on and off repetitively.

"WHAT'S GOIN' ON!?" Buford yelled, holding onto the end of the bed. The three boys were floating in the air, along with all of the loose objects in the room.

Ferb tilted his head back and laughed.

"Have you gone to crazy town?" The bully asked, his feet up in the air above him. He was completely upside-down.

Ferb and Baljeet floated nearby.

"What is wrong, Buford? We are just floating around… like men." The Indian boy taunted.

Buford let out a low groan. "Oh, when gravity starts workin' again, I tell ya, you've got another thing comin'!"

Baljeet whimpered and looked at Ferb who was now doing flips in the air. "Ferb? Do you know when the gravity will be back?" He wrapped his arms around his legs.

Ferb smiled at him as he tilted right-side-up again. "When they stop kissing. Which, knowing how long Isabella's waited for this, I'd say we're going to be up here for a while."

Baljeet widened his eyes. "You mean… they are… right now!?" He stammered in surprise.

"It's about time." Buford remarked.

They couldn't stop. The most remarkable feeling was passing through both of them and they absolutely could not stop.

Isabella and Phineas had both started to float into the air, as did the rest of everything in the house, but they hadn't really exactly… noticed it. Isabella had both of her hands on the sides of his face, and Phineas had one hand on her back and the other exploring the hair on her head. The girl wrapped her legs around him and he brought his up in a crisscross, giving into one last kiss before pulling away and taking a breath. They immediately began to slowly float down to the ground like two bubbles stuck together in the warm summer breeze.

Phineas, still trying to catch his breath, gave her a huge smile that made her giggle. She simply hugged him tight until they came down to the floor, which felt cold to the touch.

"Another impossible thing crossed off our list, huh?" Phineas said, holding her close to him. She nuzzled into his chest and dug her hands into the back of his shirt.

"Yeah, uh-huh." The girl murmured, making him smile.

Phineas lifted her chin up with one hand and stole another kiss. He didn't know if he'd ever get used to the way she made him feel. He didn't know if he wanted to get used to it. His question was most certainly answered. He did love her. The feeling he was getting was different than he'd felt for anybody ever before. And, what was even more remarkable was that those feelings were for _Isabella_. The girl that lived across the street from him. The girl who had come to see him every day of his life for as long as he could remember. She was his best friend. The person whom he knew cared about him as much as she did the sun coming up every day. Why he had never thought of her as more than a friend, he didn't know, but now… that didn't matter anymore. What mattered was that she was in his arms, safe and sound, and that they both knew now in that moment, everything was just right.

"I'm so happy you told me, Bella." The red-head exclaimed quietly, still holding her tightly.

Isabella pulled away a tiny bit in order to look at him with big, joy-filled eyes. The blue sapphires were glazed over, but they were happy tears this time, not sad ones. "You have no idea how long I've dreamt of you saying that."

Phineas smiled and giggled a bit. "Oh, Isabella, can we be together forever and ever?" He said playfully.

The girl then widened her eyes and gave a fake laugh at how accurate he was. "Now you're scaring me."

The boy chuckled nervously and his eyes darted to the left. This made Isabella a little concerned. "What?" She asked softly, eyes staring him down. Could he see what happened all those times she went off into Phineasland? Oh God, that'd be embarrassing.

Phineas let out two nervous giggles and scratched his head. "Remember that one time when we took everybody camping in the RV and we shared the bunk bed, and you were on the bottom and I was on top?"

Isabella nodded, the memories flowing through her brain of the campfire and Buford hanging Baljeet on the very top of a pine tree by his underpants.

"You were talking in your sleep one night, and I kind of never forgot what you said." The boy blushed.

Isabella laughed. "Oh…" She was relieved that he didn't have a mind-reading ability, but surprised that he'd remembered that through all these years. " I've been told that I tend to talk in my sleep a lot."

"That's not all you do in your sleep, Bella." Phineas said, making the girl go wide-eyed.

"What do you mean?"

"Sometimes you call me in your sleep." He started to giggle.

"You're joking."

Phineas shook his head. "I swear, I'm not!" He laughed. "I remember this one time, you called me like at two o'clock in the morning asking me for llama pants."

Isabella burst out laughing. She wiped her eyes and tried to control her laughter.

"And then… wait this was just last week that you did this one…" He continued, with more laughter. " You were telling me that there was an Irish dragonfly in your mailbox and when you fed it peach jelly it would write a letter to the president asking for anything you wished for." He tried to stop laughing. "I always wonder when I go to bed if you're going to call me in the middle of the night."

Isabella covered her face and tried to stop laughing. "How often do I do this?"

"I get at least three every month."

"How come you've never told me about this?"

Phineas shrugged. "It was my secret. I didn't want to spoil it."

"Then why did you tell me?"

"Well, it just came up in conversation I guess." He giggled.

Isabella's smile was starting to hurt her cheeks, and she let her head fall heavily on his chest. "That's so embarrassing." She muttered.

"I've always thought it was cute. In fact, I look forward to your midnight calls." He stated, stroking her hair.

"But I deprive you of sleep to talk about llama pants."

"And bunnies driving Lamborghinis , but hey, that's okay to me." He said, trying not to stifle another laugh, and failing miserably.

Isabella tilted her head back and pretended to cry. "Ah-ha-ha why am I so weird?" She hugged him again. "Phineas, bunnies can't drive Lamborghinis. They don't do much, you know."

"That's what I tried to tell you, but you kept denying me."

She looked up at him. "You mean… you can have a full-fledged conversation with me when I call? Like I'll respond?"

Phineas nodded. "When I told you I'd help you make some llama pants in the morning, you got mad and accused me of stealing your frog."

"Pffffffffff…" Isabella doubled over in laughter.

Ferb unlocked the door, and it clicked open with ease. "I was right." He smiled.

Buford ran out of the room and into the hall, where he collapsed down on the floor and kissed it. "FINALLY! I THOUGHT I'D NEVER SEE THE OTHER SIDE OF THAT DOOR AGAIN." He yelled.

Baljeet raised an eyebrow and frowned slightly. "Get up, Buford, we need to go save Phineas and Isabella."

"I'm sure those lovebirds can survive a couple more minutes by themselves. I just… me and the floor need a moment alone…" His voice got quieter as he reached the end of his sentence.

"You cannot get up, can you?" Baljeet guessed miserably.

"I didn't say that!" The bully objected.

Ferb sighed at the large body on the ground. "Buford, you have to get up, you're blocking the hallway."

Buford groaned and picked himself up slowly. "Fine. But only because the carpet smells like wet dog."

The three teenage boys, Ferb in the lead, made their way quickly down the stairs they had first came up. They turned inwards and dropped off at a curve to where it was easy to turn into the downstairs hall that led to the kitchen.

Buford was the one that held the zucchini scented candle now, so he entertained himself by seeing if he could move his finger through the fire quick enough to where it didn't burn. It had stayed lit through the whole time in the little girl's scary room, and the flame was even more massive than it had started out to be. It lit the way down the hall and showed them that the floor of the kitchen was no longer deadly.

"The glass is gone!" Baljeet shouted in surprise.

"But where are Dinner-bell and girly?" Buford smirked.

Ferb rolled his eyes, luckily his back facing the bully. He then cautiously put one foot out and stepped on the ground, determining for himself if it was safe or not. But after a good fifteen seconds of nothing, he began to walk across the kitchen floor. Buford and Baljeet exchanged a worried look, and then took their own first steps into the room.

They walked over to Ferb who was looking down both ends of the hallway. There were two doors, one on the left and one on the right. The one on the left was left wide open, and the other was closed. He went for the closed one.

When he got closer, he could hear laughter from both of the teenagers he was looking for. Phineas' short, fast giggles, and Isabella's child-like laughs accompanied by the occasional snort.

"What are they doin in there?" Buford asked, wiggling his eyebrows.

Ferb scoffed. "Shut up, Buford." He whispered. He wanted to know what they were talking about, just so he could hear them talk as a couple for the first time. The British-American set his ear upon the door and listened with a hushed finger against his lips.

Phineas was the first to say something. "But the best one, " He paused to laugh some more. "The best one was when you said you thought Ferb was a secret agent working undercover for a dill pickle hospital, and he gave you a ride in a pontoon boat across the Atlantic Ocean to pick up a baby named Rick." He paused to laugh, and Ferb furrowed his brow in confusion. "And when you got there, the baby wasn't actually a baby, it was a pickle in a bonnet and diaper buckled into a stroller. And you were so serious, too, like… you said that Ferb had to read it a bedtime story every night to make it sour enough to eat, and you never once laughed."

Ferb picked his head off the door and stared at Buford and Baljeet. "I have no idea what she did to him, but he has gone completely mad."

"Knock on the door." Baljeet suggested.

Ferb did exactly that. After a few seconds, the laughter had died down on the inside enough for him to speak: "Phineas… Isabella? Um… is it safe for me to open the door?" He asked awkwardly.

Isabella had frowned and blushed madly. "Yeah, Ferb, yeah." She said quickly.

The boy opened the door, and was relieved to see them decent.

Phineas realized something, and his smile died. He stood up. "How did you guys get over here?" The glass didn't cut you up, did it?"

Buford frowned. "How long have you been in the laundry room, dude? Everything fixed itself."

"Fixed itself? How?" Phineas tilted his head in confusion as the gang made their way out of the hallway. Baljeet and Ferb smiled when the two clueless teenagers saw the clean kitchen. Phineas' jaw dropped. "It's brand new!"

"How did this happen?" Isabella wondered, looking at Ferb. Buford handed the candle to Ferb, and the boy smiled slyly.

"The whole haunting is linking to a past full of bad relationship mess ups, so when you two got serious back there, everything fixed itself." He pointed a waving finger at Phineas and Isabella, who both turned red. Ferb grinned and chuckled.

"Oh, quit your immature smile, Ferb, all we did was kiss." Isabella said, crossing her arms. Phineas felt like hiding.

The British boy laughed. "So you don't deny it!"

Phineas groaned. "We're not going to hide it, no."

"Calm down, pointy, we just find it amusing." Buford said, giggling a bit.

"Stop picking fun at him, guys, _he_ actually kissed me, I didn't kiss him first." Isabella smiled brightly at Phineas.

"I will not believe it until I see it." Baljeet stated.

Phineas glared at him.

Ferb and Buford agreed with the Hindi boy though.

"I'm afraid I need to see something to believe it also, Phin, it's merely how I work." Ferb crossed his arms, yet still held the candle upright.

Buford grimaced. "I'm no fan of anything mushy-gushy, _but this_ is just one of those things on my list of things I have to see before I die."

Phineas slumped. "Are you serious, guys? I don't want to be forced into something like this."

"It's really okay Phineas, I don't mind." Isabella beamed.

He blinked and looked at her. "You don't mind? Because if you don't mind, I don't mind either…"

Ferb covered his mouth with a fist to hide a laugh.

Isabella giggled, and she stepped closer to him, allowing him to hold her head in his hands.

Baljeet, Buford, and Ferb all had huge smiles on their faces.

"It's like show and tell." Buford muttered. "Hey look what we can do."

Phineas pressed his lips against Isabella's, and she melted again. It hadn't died down at all. The feeling was still completely present.

Ferb whistled.

Phineas pulled away, but only for a second to murmur "Shut up Ferb." And then he went back to what he was doing.

Ferb tilted his head back and laughed.


	6. Chapter 6

Snow was still steadily falling outside the old house, but it wasn't coming down as hard as it had been when the gang had first rushed inside to get away from it. Not knowing what to do, the gang simply sat in the living room by the fireplace as the flame made puppets of the shadows on the walls, making them dance like they were in a ballroom. All five of them were sitting around the fire on the hard floor, feeling that the nearest chairs were too far away, and they didn't want to mess with anything else in the house.

The flame played on their faces, and their skin glowed a fiery orange that made it look like each of the teenagers was lying on a peaceful beach under the colorful sunset. The only thing that pulled them into reality was the sound of the whistling wind outside. Even though the snow had died down, the wind had picked up and was turning the blizzard into more of a windstorm. The boards in the house creaked and wined, as if they were frightened about being pushed into such extremes.

"How is your leg, Phineas?" Baljeet's voice broke the silence. He seemed to be the one doing it the most lately. The first two times he had barged in right when Phineas or Isabella was about to say something regarding their relationship. Phineas guessed he didn't really mean to break anything up, he just had bad timing.

Phineas outstretched his right leg, seeing that Isabella's bow was still firmly wrapped around it. The pink fabric was trickled with blood, and it looked revolting. The gang made disgusted faces as they laid their eyes on the material.

"I don't know. I haven't looked at it since Izzy wrapped it up."

The fire crackled behind his voice. Ferb looked concerned, seeing the unpleasant frown on Phineas' lips. He reached out and touched it, trying to feel how tightly wrapped it was, but the inventor cringed at the feeling of fingers right on his cut. Ferb swiftly pulled his hand away in shock.

"Does it still hurt that bad, Phin? It must've gone deeper than we thought; taking the fact the pain should be tolerable by now." The Brit said in alarm, looking up at his stepbrother's eyes.

"If it hurts that bad, then how were you walkin on it earlier, Flynn?" Buford inquired, shooting a look of uncertainty at the boy in question.

Phineas bit his lip and he smiled guiltily.

Ferb's eyes grew wide. "You mean to tell me that you're mad enough to go and walk on it even though it causes you excruciating pain!?"

"I got used to it after a couple of limps." Phineas tried to make it sound less ridiculous. "Really, it's okay. I'm fine." He began to pull his leg back behind him when Isabella stopped it by resting a hand on his shin.

"Let us see it, Phin." She muttered, looking him straight in the eye.

Phineas looked at her, her skin covered with her own share of scratches varying from paper cut deep to scalpel deep, yet she was only fretful about his own single cut on his leg. Without letting Phineas protest, though he wouldn't have tried very hard since he knew there wasn't any reason to be keeping the seriousness of his injury a secret, Isabella pulled on the ends of the bow she had tied earlier today. It unraveled easily, and she cautiously removed the make-shift bandage. They all, even Phineas, grew discomforted at how much blood he had lost, for it had seeped through only two layers of the wrap, and the third had functioned primarily as a cover-up. Isabella held her old bow out and dropped it on the brick that was meant to catch flying sparks from the fireplace.

The wound was about a centimeter wide and three inches long, stretching horizontally across the lowest part of his knee, gouging in right under his kneecap. Her bow had helped with most of the bleeding, thankfully, but a small stream of the red sticky liquid was still coming out of it like a river down a mountain.

Isabella hadn't gotten a good look at it before, with everything that was going on she had simply wrapped it up, not inspecting it like she wished she had. She held a hand over her mouth as she examined it, while Ferb sacrificed his scarf. It was a thin piece of fabric, but not as thin as Isabella's bow. "This will have to do until we get out in the morning." He murmured, handing it to his brother to wrap it up himself.

Phineas did exactly as Ferb implied. He held it down on the back of his leg and pulled it around the gash about four times before tucking the other end inside. He winced at every amount of pressure that was put on it.

Phineas knew he needed to change subjects, seeing all of his friends' worried faces. Especially because they worried about him, and he didn't feel comfortable with everyone he loved feeling so heavy-hearted about something as tiny as a cut on his leg. He managed to pull his lips up into a grin and he looked out at everyone. "Hey, on the bright side, guess what?"

Ferb and the others looked up at him wearily, eyes full of disdain. "What, Phineas?" Isabella managed a small smile, feeling reassured that he could still pull his signature expression out of a hat as he always seemed to do. It was like magic, and it filled her with awe every time.

"I know what we're going to do tomorrow! That is, if the weather isn't too bad."

Baljeet chuckled, and Buford rolled his eyes. The other two besides the genius with the glint in his eye looked on in wonder.

"Since nobody got to have Halloween today because of the storm, I was thinking we make something that can get rid of all the snow so everybody can go trick-or-treating tomorrow night. We'll have a late Halloween."

Ferb raised a thumb up in approval, Isabella nodded eagerly, and Baljeet and Buford looked very happy.

"Sounds like a plan then!" The red-head chuckled.

That's when the front door of the house flew wide open, letting the cold air blow in like a tornado during the proper season. The hair on the five teenager's heads blew back as they turned their heads quickly to the loud noise, gasping in shock. The wind was so heavy that the fire behind them, the huge beautiful orange flame, went out like a lamp. The two candles they had been carrying from the start of their adventure until now also blew out and left a trail of smoke to float up like that of a puff from a cigar.

"Oh my God, they're here!" The voice of Linda Flynn-Fletcher sang with relief as she first stumbled into the house. "You were right, Vivian, you were right!" She yelled into the yard.

Phineas and all his friends' faces lit up like stars when they found out who it was.

"Mom!" Phineas shouted, and he pulled himself up, attempting to run to her, but he stumbled and was caught from a fall by Ferb. "Careful! Don't get too excited." The young green-haired man smirked.

Phineas glared at him as he helped him up.

Linda came running up to him and Ferb, and was followed into the house by Vivian Garcia-Shapiro.

When Isabella saw her mom, she let out a breath that she hadn't known she was holding. The girl ran to her mother and practically jumped onto her, hugged her tightly.

"Oh, mi hija!" Vivian exclaimed joyfully. "That was a smart decision to go into a house when the blizzard arrived. I'm so proud of you!"

Linda pulled away from a hug from her sons and rubbed Baljeet and Buford on the heads. "Oh, you all had us worried sick! When I came home and you guys weren't there, I remembered that you had gone out for a walk, and I was sure you had found somewhere to take shelter through the storm." She paused and looked around the old house. "This old place gives me the heebie jeebies, though. I would think you would try and knock on somebody's door, I mean you kids know everyone in the neighborhood for some reason I can't explain."

"This was the closest house when the storm blew in." Phineas answered.

Linda rubbed her mittens together and shivered. "Let's drop everyone off and get warm, okay? The more time we spend in here, the more of a risk there is of someone catching a cold." The woman began to rush everyone out the door. She wanted her sons and their friends to be safe and sound in their homes for the rest of the night.

"But mom, how did you know we were here?" Phineas wondered, looking up at her with curiosity.

Linda nodded her head at the fireplace behind them. "The smoke coming from the chimney. This house hasn't been lived in for thirty years, so why would there be smoke?" She smiled. "Vivian and I checked almost every house on the street before seeing it."

"But the weather outside is way too bad for a car to be driving, even if it's just going down the street! The snow is like five feet deep!" Isabella fretted.

Linda chuckled. "We had other means of transportation." She pointed down at her feet, where she sported two big snowshoes. "Remember the trip to Colorado five years ago?"

Vivian also had a pair of the tennis racket-like foot gear.

Buford chuckled at this. "Looks like you strapped rackets to your shoes."

Then their eyes widened as Linda pulled an extra three pairs of tennis rackets out of her jacket. She had been keeping them in there so she wouldn't have to hold them, because if she tried her fingers would go numb from the cold. And yes, these were _actual_ tennis rackets. Not snow shoes like the two adults had on. Vivian reached into her pocket and pulled out a ring of duct tape.

"_We_ didn't, but _you_ are." The woman handed a pair to Buford, a pair to Ferb, and a pair to Isabella. Baljeet and Phineas frowned at the lack of tennis rackets for them. Linda bit her lip. "We only had six rackets, so two people are going to have to carry someone."

Buford lifted Baljeet up and put him under his arm like a suitcase. "I'll carry this one." He said rudely while the Hindi teen sighed in anguish. "I guess I should have seen that coming." He muttered.

Phineas looked at his brother and then to Isabella, who both had amused smiles. The boy was about to say something about flipping a coin, but then Isabella rolled her eyes and muttered, "Oh, come here you big ragdoll" and stepped forward and scooped him up into her arms, causing him to yelp slightly. She giggled.

Ferb and the others laughed, including the two women.

With that, the whistling wind met them outside, leaving the house in its everlasting silence once again. The snow had stopped completely but the wind was cold-blooded and ruthless. But they had to get home no matter what. The moms led the group with two high-powered flashlights they didn't know the boys had beefed up to where they could use them to make portals to anywhere on Earth. But Phineas and Ferb had forgotten about it.

They stepped into the snow and made their way down the frost covered streets, walking slowly against the wind. Phineas hid his face in Isabella's jacket, and she did the same, causing their foreheads to touch. He knew her cuts must be stinging right now, even though all of the winter gear had been replaced on her body, her face still showed and she was cringing a bit. He could feel her struggling to carry him through the harsh conditions. The wind was bringing up chunks of hard crystals that hit the skin on their faces, and it felt like tiny razor blades… or even the possessed glass that had caused the cuts in the first place. Isabella re-gripped Phineas and he immediately put his arms around her neck to hold on. Ferb walked behind them with his hands stuffed deep into his pockets and his winter's hat stretched over his ears. He squinted through the weather, but couldn't see his brother or best friend -only figures- walking ahead of him. This was going to be a long walk.

"Alright, it's not that deep, honey, just let me get some Neosporin and some gauze to cover it with." Linda said calmly, leaning over her son's leg. Phineas looked at the cleaned cut. It wasn't as deep as he had thought it was. In fact, his mom said he wouldn't need stitches and he just needed to keep it clean until it healed by itself.

Linda disappeared into the hall to fetch the aforementioned items, leaving Phineas and Ferb in their room. All of the teenagers had retreated to their houses, and it had been an hour since Ferb had closed his eyes in his warm bed. So it was just Phineas and Perry, sitting quietly in the room. Perry knew that his owner was hurting, so the platypus had curled up beside him, giving the boy warmth and comfort. Phineas stroked the animal's fur and smiled, thinking he must have had a rough day at the agency. Yes, Phineas knew about his double life, but that was beside the point at the moment. All that really mattered right now was that nobody had gotten frostbite, no one had to sleep in a freezing cold house that was definitely haunted, and Ferb wasn't snoring. Phineas reached a fist up and knocked on his wooden side table.

But just as his knuckle met the wood for the second time, his cellphone started playing a song sang by Isabella Garcia-Shapiro, indicating that she was calling him.

_Don't need a limo or a corsage,  
Just him and me without the entourage  
And I won't be upset (I won't be upset)  
At this emotional roulette (Emotional roulette)  
I'll take any little thing that I can get..._

He listened to it for a bit… and he realized he was the one she was singing about. "Hmm." He murmured in disdain. He should've known. Although it _was_ her birthday when she had sang it, and he had other things on his mind.

He pressed the answer button and put it up to his ear sleepily. "Hey, Izzy."

"I tried to make it go on the swings, but the butter was too dry!" The girl murmured sadly.

A smile crept up on the boy's face. It was good to know she had fallen asleep already, because he had been a little worried that she wouldn't be able to sleep tonight after the day's events.

"You tried to make what go on the swings?" He asked casually.

"The pillow kitty."

Phineas blinked. He could hear steady breathing on the other end, indicating she was in fact asleep. "Well, maybe you should get some non-dry butter."

"It's all the way in the bouncy house." Her words came slowly.

"Where's the bouncy house?"

"In the hair."

"What hair?"

"Your hair is so flaming, Phineas…"

Phineas snickered. "H-what?"

"Don't catch on fire."

"Oh, I promise I won't."

"Don't get your hair in the toaster."

"Can I put eggs in the toaster?"

"No, eggs in your hair."

Phineas shifted in his place and got under the covers in the S.S. Phineas. "What about yours?"

"My pillow kitty is in the freezer!"

Phineas giggled. "You better get it out then, it's gonna turn into ice."

"Now the butter is too wet."

"Blot it with a paper towel."

"The paper towels have chicken sneezes."

"But those were the expensive ones!" Phineas said sadly.

"Chickens are hot."

Phineas had taken a sip of water from a glass nearby and he spit it all out on Perry. The platypus jumped up and glared at him, wiping the spit water off his fur.

"What!?" The red head exclaimed.

"The chicken legs are so hot, Phin. So hot…"

"What kind of messed up dream are you having?"

"Oh, this isn't a dream, chickens are just so smoking hot."

Phineas paused and tried to picture what she could possibly be dreaming about. "Do you mean like… scolding hot… or _hot_ hot?"

"Jealous of the chickens." She muttered.

"No, I'm just trying to help you get your pillow kitty on the swing."

"Don't worry, Phinny Phin Phin… no one can beat your record. Not even the chickens."

Phineas' eyes widened. "Um… what record?"

"Cabbage."

"I don't think you've ever had a dream as weird as this one, Isabella."

"Oh, it gets much stranger, Kevin."

Phineas frowned and looked at Perry, who shrugged. The girl started mumbling some kind of gibberish.

"Thank you for saving me…" She muttered.

Phineas remembered pulling the raven-haired girl away from the kitchen. "You don't have to thank me, I couldn't have lived a second longer knowing it was my fault you didn't make it."

"You set me free. My room was getting really claustrophobic with all of the pink." Her voice had gotten a lot clearer and less tired. In fact… Isabella sounded younger.

"I don't think I understand…" He lowered his eyebrows.

"You don't have to. All I want you to know is that this house is much brighter now that the fighting is over." The sound cracked and static started coming through, but the voice was still understandable. "I don't have to hide anymore. I can see the light now. I'm free."

Phineas gasped and pulled the phone away from his ear and stared at it, and then returned it to his ear. "Where's Isabella?"

"Don't worry. I'm not hurting your friend. I'm just using her mouth to speak."

Phineas didn't know what to make of it. "Get out of her!"

The voice gasped and whimpered. "I'm sorry. I've done wrong." She paused. "Thank you and your friends for helping me. I-I'll go now." The voice of the small girl giggled. "I… I can see his face…"

Then the sound cracked and the static stopped.

Phineas' breaths shook and his brow furrowed, but then a small smile grew on his lips, and he looked at the phone. "Goodbye." He said softly.

The call had ended. He turned his head and looked at Perry, who had his little teal head cocked to the side. Phineas smiled, still trying to register the last sentence the girl had said. He opened his mouth to say something to the platypus, but then he closed it again. He just pressed his lips together in thought. "We did something really good today, Perry." He finally murmured.

The platypus smiled.


End file.
